Ben is now 7 1/2 months. On the chart below, so far he has mastered all the 7-month Mastered Skills and Emerging Skills, and a few of the Advanced Skills. He’s mastered everything on on the 8-month Skills lists and most of the things on 9-month Skills list. He’s gonna be a genius, like me!

So Ben is:

• crawling,
• standing up while hanging on stuff,
• feeding himself Mum Mums, cereal, freeze-dried yogurt thigns, etc.
• babbling,
• saying “Mama” and “Dada” (he says “Mama” when upset and “Dada” when playing with his sippy cup or eating).

:::chart from BabyCenter.com

Child’s Age	Mastered Skills (most kids can do)	Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)	Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
7 months	Sits without support Drags objects toward herself	Lunges forward orstarts crawling Jabbers or combines syllables Starts to experiencestranger anxiety	Waves goodbye Stands while holding onto something Bangs objects together Begins to understandobject permanence
8 months	Says “mama” and “dada” to both parents (isn’t specific) Passes objects from hand to hand	Stands while holding onto something Crawls Points at objects Searches for hidden objects	Pulls self to standing,cruises Picks things up with thumb-finger pincer grasp Indicates wants with gestures
9 months	Stands while holding onto something Jabbers or combines syllables Understands object permanence	Cruises while holding onto furniture Drinks from a sippy cup Eats with fingers Bangs objects together	Plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo Says “mama” and “dada” to the correct parent
10 months	Waves goodbye Picks things up with pincer grasp Crawls well, with belly off the ground	Says “mama” and “dada” to the correct parent Indicates wants with gestures	Stands alone for a couple of seconds Puts objects into a container
11 months	Says “mama” and “dada” to the correct parent Plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo Stands alone for a couple of seconds Cruises	Understands “no” and simple instructions Puts objects into a container	Says one wordbesides “mama” and “dada” Stoops from standing position
12 months	Imitates others’ activities Indicates wants with gestures	Takes a few steps Says one wordbesides “mama” and “dada”	Walks alone Scribbles with a crayon Says two wordsbesides “mama” and “dada”

Ben has been eating food for a few months now.

Strangely, he really does like just about everything: apples, bananas, all kinds of squash, sweet potatoes, spinach, pears, peaches, broccoli, rice, chickpeas, green beans, peas, mangoes, pineapples, beets, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, prunes, and corn, and probably more that I can’t think of.

So far there are only two things he doesn’t like: carrot and lentils.

I think his favorites are apples and peas.

He is a messy eater so we bought him some smocks at IKEA, pictured above.

For his height and age, he’s a little underweight so we’re trying to fatten him up a little.

Ben’s been so active since he learned to crawl. His most recent toy was a walker thingy that makes a lot of music/noise.